My Side of the Story: Minotaur
by Fegerrific
Summary: As a poor college student, I eat ramen four nights a week and ramen bake the other three. So it's no surprise that I would try to supplement my income. But maybe dressing up like a monster to steal some priceless artifacts wasn't the best idea...This is my story...
1. Summer Opportunity

_(A/N: Companion piece/pseudo-sequel to 'What Lurks in the Labyrinth') _

**At the start of the summer, I was offered the chance of a lifetime: a trip to an archaeological dig! It was the most fun I'd ever had, not counting run-ins with venomous snakes and sunburns. But as the summer progressed, I got greedy! After excavating all the rare artifacts, I wanted them for myself. So I cooked up a scheme **— **but I'm getting ahead of myself. It all started that one day in Demetrius' class…**

Professor Demetrius passed back a stack of archaeology papers to his lecture class. "Mr. Vardos, great job…Ms. Martinez, see me after class…Ms. Rodriguez, good." The professor flopped down his last paper and ambled to the front of the lecture hall. "Okay, everyone, see you next week. Read chapter five for Tuesday."

Nick Vardos stuffed his laptop in his bag and meandered towards the door, but Professor Demetrius caught him by the arm. "Mr. Vardos, do you have a spare minute to talk?"

"Sure, Professor," Nick replied, shifting his messenger bag over his shoulder. "What's up?"

"Well, I have an opportunity to lead an archaeological dig this summer. I'm allowed to take one extra person and you're my best student this year. Would you be interested?"

"WOULD I?" Nick exclaimed.

"I'll take that as a yes," chuckled Demetrius. "You'll have to jump through some hoops…"

**When it's something I want, I'll do hoops of any size. Going to a real archaeological dig was a dream come true, so I filled out all the paperwork and retrieved all the necessary visas well before the deadline. The rest of the year passed in a blur as I waited for summer to come.**

Nick flipped disinterestedly through the safety information packet as the perky flight attendant demonstrated proper water landing procedure. Finally, with a roar of the engine, the plane's wheels left the ground. Professor and student were winging their way to Greece.

Nick dozed through most of the eleven-hour flight until the professor poked him awake. "My boy, did you know that you snore?" Demetrius teased good-naturedly. "Look out the window." Nick leaned over the professor to catch a glimpse of Greece from 30,000 feet in the air.

"Wow, what a view!" sighed Nick. "This summer will be awesome!"

**Awesome, if you like venomous snakes and scorching heat. Those first few weeks, getting acclimated to the weather conditions and working around the clock, were murder. But as the summer progressed, I slowly got into the swing of things.**

"Professor! Professor!" called Nick, racing towards the dark-skinned man. "Look what I found!"

The Professor grinned at his student's exuberance and took the artifact carefully. "Looks like an old coin of some sort," he said, brushing off some loose dirt to reveal an impression of a haughty, bearded man wearing a crown. "This looks like an old drachma. It's very rare and valuable." Demetrius pressed the coin back into Nick's hand. "What a find!" Grinning from the professor's praise, Nick pocketed the coin and dashed away. Demetrius watched him go, snickering at Nick's infectious excitement.

That night, as Nick changed in his tent, the ancient coin dropped out of his pocket and fell to the ground with a clink. Nick bent down to pick it up. "Huh, forgot I put that there," he muttered to himself. He placed the coin on his makeshift bedside table and shrugged on his pajamas before sinking into the lumpy cot. Nick toyed with the coin, giving it a spin and letting it spiral on its edge before catching it and giving it a flip. 'Is it really that valuable?' Nick thought to himself. "Hmmm…" he mumbled before drifting off to sleep.


	2. Digging Myself Deeper

**I never intended to have it go this far. I just thought I could smuggle a few coins and some pottery shards to sell – some things no one would miss but would make me enough money to get through college. But my greed got the better of me and I wanted more and more. So I dreamed up the Minotaur scheme and used one of my weekends off to fetch an appropriately terrifying costume.**

Two archaeologists busily removed layers of soil from a half-buried column in the twilight. Nick, dressed in his Minotaur costume, snuck up behind them and roared loudly. With a shout of horror, the two raced away and never returned. 'Two down,' Nick muttered to himself.

**I…appropriated…the aluminum powder used to dust for fingerprints to make myself breathe fire and make myself even more frightening. I couldn't believe how superstitious the archaeologists were, but it worked in my favor. Soon, I only had to scare away the professor and a few of the divers before I would be home free. But then everything began to unravel…**

"You wanted to see me, Professor?" Nick asked, ducking into Demetrius' tent.

The professor looked up from the mound of paperwork burying his makeshift desk. "Yes, Nick. Just wondered if you'd been noticing anything…strange lately?"

Nick arranged his face in an appropriately puzzled look. "Strange? Like what?"

Demetrius grimaced. "I hate to say it myself, because I'm afraid…well, it'll sound silly." Nick prompted with a 'go ahead' hand gesture. "Well, the archaeologists all say there's a Minotaur on the loose."

Nick fell into gales of laughter to disguise the guilty look crossing his face. "M-minotaur?! L-like the m-mythological beast Minotaur?" Nick choked through fake guffaws. "That's the funniest thing I've ever heard, Professor!"

"Ordinarily, I'd agree with you, my boy," sighed Demetrius. "But I'm not laughing as it means we're down to about three people trying to excavate a whole dig site in less than a month! If something doesn't change and fast, I'll have to call in a favor or two to fix this…"

"A favor?" asked Nick curiously.

Demetrius waved his hand dismissively. "Don't you worry about it, just keep doing what you're doing."

**'Keep doing what you're doing?' Now that I could handle. **


	3. A New Discovery

**About a week went by, I scared away some more fools and kept excavating some more artifacts for my private collection. However, the fateful day arrived when everything unravelled. It started out a great morning; I found three drachmas and a few amphora shards for my collection. Then I saw Adonia Kopsis out of the corner of my eye. That old ...uh...witch had been hanging around here, arguing with the professor about selling the land for some theme park she wanted to build. I left my stash and went to go find Demetrius.**

"Professor Demetrius, that crazy Adonia lady is back," Nick called, jogging up to Demetrius and the gang.

The professor rolled his eyes with a sigh. "I'll deal with it later. Gang, this is my assistant, Nick Vardos. He's one of my best students this year, so I invited him along for some hands-on experience. Nick, these are the sleuths that I asked to help us with our monster problem."

"You mean the Minotaur? Superstitious nonsense is all it is," Nick lied easily.

"I couldn't agree more," the professor agreed. "I'll show the sleuths around and then go deal with Adonia." Nick nodded and fell in step behind the gang.

While Demetrius showed the gang around, Nick cursed his luck at the newest complication in his scheme. He didn't think they would scare as easily as the superstitious archaeologists.

"We even brought in a team of divers to help us find submerged artifacts." Demetrius explained as he led them to a sandy-haired man in a wetsuit. "But only one hasn't been scared away yet. He's Tiger Morris, the head of our diving team."

"Tiger Morris? Why does that name sound familiar…" Velma bit her lip in thought. "Jinkies! I remember you from Acapulco!" she exclaimed. "Shouldn't you still be in prison?"

"H-How did you – " Tiger sputtered. "Wait, you're the meddling kids who helped capture me!" he exclaimed, recognition dawning on his face.

"Acapulco? Prison?" Demetrius blustered. "What is the meaning of this?"

**Ha! So goody-two-shoes Tiger was a jailbird! While Demetrius blustered angrily, my mind went into overtime. Not only had Tiger spent time behind bars, those sleuths had put him there in the first place! And with Demetrius furious already, it would be easy to let Tiger take the fall for me while I walked away with a fortune!**

**After giving Demetrius the slip, I tiptoed over to Tiger's tent to filch a few things that would point Demetrius' sleuths in the direction I wanted. As I slipped stealthily through the canvas flap, I overheard Tiger and one of the sleuths arguing loudly. I hadn't even started my deception and it was working perfectly! I snitched one of Tiger's spare diving masks and raced away before I could get caught.**


	4. Meddling Kids

Nick dropped the mask off at his tent and scrambled into his costume. Lumbering around, roaring and snarling, he stumbled across Professor Demetrius and gave chase for a few minutes before giving up and going off to find the sleuths.

As luck would have it, he ran right into the tall lanky sleuth with the dog and frightened them off as well. 'This might be easier than I thought,' Nick murmured to himself as he shrugged off his costume and went off to formulate an alibi.

**Professor Demetrius? Check. Lanky dork and bloodhound? Check. Hot chick, brainiac girl and blonde leader guy? Un-check! Something told me they wouldn't scare too easily, so I thought I'd play it sneaky. I planted my incriminating evidence to frame Tiger and then put my brilliant plan into action.**

Nick grabbed at his black sweatpants and yanked as hard as possible. The fabric split, sending a jagged rip down the side. Nick grinned at his handiwork and slipped off his grey tank top. Bare-chested, the young man took a match to the ribbed grey fabric and grinned as it scorched easily. He blew out the match, crumbled the charred end and smeared the soot over his face and chest before putting his shirt back on. He mussed up his hair and raced out of his tent for the performance of his life.

"What happened, Nick?" asked the professor with concern.

"I was attacked!" Nick lied through his teeth, fabricating an imaginary attack for the listening sleuths.

"Can you take us to where you saw the Minotaur?" asked the brainiac girl.

Nick pretended to worry before relenting. "Fine. I'll take you there." He led the sleuths to his planted evidence and excused himself to watch the fireworks.

**They'd bought it! I could barely hide my grin as I watched Tiger, protesting desperately, get dragged away by that blonde Ted guy. But there was a little snag that I hadn't envisioned, one that quickly led to my downfall.**

"I can't thank you kids enough for solving the mystery!" Demetrius exclaimed. "I'll call all my employees to come back and help get this dig back on track!"

Nick bit into his arm to keep himself from crying out in horror. Tiger was in jail, but that meant that the dig would continue. 'I can't let this happen,' Nick thought, racing off to scramble into his costume.

With a vicious snarl and a burst of fake flame, Nick roared onto the scene and gave chase. As he raced through the dig site in hot pursuit of the meddling sleuths, he suddenly felt himself being hoisted into the air as a net closed around him.

**I knew I was trapped, no wiggling my way out this time. After I was unmasked and my plan exposed, Demetrius berated me furiously for an hour or more on my stupidity. Once the carnage was over, he softened up and promised that I wouldn't receive a one-way ticket to prison like I deserved. However, once I saw the punishment he'd dreamed up, I think I would've taken jail any day.**

Adonia grinned broadly, pulling the bull mask cheerily over Nick's scowling face. "Perfect!" she giggled. "Now give me a growl." Feeling exceptionally foolish, Nick reluctantly complied. "Good, good, now a roar. Excellent. It's almost like you've done this before!"

"Yeah, yeah," Nick murmured under his breath.

"Now get in there! We'll be sending in guests any minute now. Spook it up just like we practiced."

Nick mumbled a few choice curses as he made his way into the center of the attraction.

**Once the summer was over, I returned to the United States for the start of the semester. I worked my tail off to get back into Demetrius' good graces and prove that I wasn't a worthless thief with no future. It must've worked, since after graduation, Demetrius hired me as his full-time assistant! Since then, I'm proud to say I've excavated millions of dollars in rare artifacts and stolen nothing since!**


End file.
